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Saturday, March 24, 2012

I want to share something I wrote about Jack. Today we watched a tribute to him and I was reminded of the intense turmoil of emotions I felt after his funeral. Obviously sadness but so many others too. So right after the funeral ended, I stayed in my seat as everyone left and wrote the piece below. :)

If you have loved and respected Jack, think on what he stood for, what his values were, what he believed in. Those values, those beliefs, those opinions are what made Jack who he was. They are inseparable, they defined him. So don't let this day pass without thinking about what those values were that so motivated Jack. Those values that kept him going through anything and everything. Jack was his values, and if you loved Jack think about loving those values. If not loving them, think about respecting those values. And respect means, as Rev. Brent Hawkes said Jack felt, respect means asking questions and not attacking.

As Stephen Lewis said in his most magnificent speech, we have been shaken by our grief but we will be steadied by our convictions. So true! And finally Karl Belanger reminded us that Jack was simply a guy that liked people. :) And he did have ambition, but not for himself, rather for our country and its people.

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So today was a great day, coz I attended my first ever NDP convention!! Totally awesome!! And totally exciting to vote for Jack Layton’s successor!! I personally have decided to vote for Niki Ashton... she has the drive, the passion, the principles, the enthusiasm, energy, and the amazing ability to really connect to people, that I look for in my politicians!! And fuck! If I hear one more time "she’s great for someone so young" I'm gonna punch someone!! As a woman that's played sports and done engineering, I cannot count the number of times I've heard "she's good for a girl" about me or some other female in those areas!! What the fuck does that mean?!?! That is mild sexism/ageism!! Coz it means you expect so little out of the "lesser" gender, age group, race, etc that you're impressed that they're on a par with old white guys?! Anyways rant over! ;)